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whether for prosecuting his researches, or for committing them to paper, he finds that he can do for himself, what the most learned professor, without such means, could never have qualified him to perform. The result, on the whole, is that, unless professors condescend to become teachers, not only communicating instructions to their students; but subjecting them to a regular course of active labor; and thus obtaining an opportunity of knowing the progress of their minds,-of correcting their labors, and of directing them to the nieans of higher degrees of excellence,-the effects of education will only be experienced by the chosen few, whose natural talents enable them to follow out, and profit by the ingenious lectures of the professor.

In the university with which I have so long been connected, the practical mode of education is zealously followed in all the departments of the undergraduate course. In the class of moral philosophy which succeeds that of the logic, the professor meets his students at two separate hours, each day, during the session. At the first of these, he delivers a lecture on the principles of ethical science, embracing such inquiries into the nature of the human mind, as are connected with the character of man, considered as a moral agent, and are necessary to unfold those states of thought and feeling, known by the terms instinct, appetite, desire, passion, and affection. In this way the student is led to consider the origin and authority of moral sentiment, and to trace the rise of those energetic principles which actuate and impel the vast mechanism of human society;—as also, the source and distinction of moral good and evil, of praise and blame, of reward and punishment. He is made acquainted with the opinions of the learned, in ancient and modern times, respecting the obligations of morality, the qualities of mind and of action in which virtue consists, and the various standards of moral excellence which have been proposed in different ages and nations, to determine the true source of approbation in the human mind.

Those subjects are followed by a consideration of the principles of law and government, so far as these are founded on the moral nature of man;-tending to illustrate the gradual progress of refinement in the history of civil society.

At the second hour of meeting, the students are examined on the various topics of the lecture which I have just described;-or they listen to the remarks of the professor on the essays they are enjoined to write, which he reads daily in the class;-or, according to a practice long established in that department, they translate to him a portion of some of the ethical works of Cicero, or of the Novum Organon of Lord Bacon. This latter exercise, like the lectures of the college tutors in English universities, is accompanied with a commentary on the part of the professor.

In the class of natural philosophy, the last in the under-graduate course, the professor likewise meets his students at two separate hours every day. At the one, he gives lectures on the elements of matter and motion,-on mechanics, pneumatics, hydrostatics, optics, and astronomy. It being understood that the students have previously made some progress in mathematics, he applies demonstrative reasoning to those parts of his subjects, which admit of it; while, in other branches, he illustrates the laws and processes of nature by a regular course of experiments carefully prepared, and exhibited by means of a very expensive and ingenious apparatus, enlarged from time to time, as the progress of the arts required.

But it is chiefly by following out a regular system of examinations and exercises, that my respected colleagues, in these two departments, render their labors available to the great object of academical instruction. Nor is there any part of the business of the class more agreeable to the young men themselves; as a proof of this, it deserves to be mentioned, that, besides the exercises which are required from the whole class, there are not a few presented as the fruits of voluntary study and exertion on the part of individuals. The spirit of emulation and the desire of improvement, which are thus excited, make the labor light and even pleasant. The student has the pride of appearing before his master and his companions, in the character of an author; and however incorrect or trivial his performances may be, they afford him at least the means of regulating thought, of improving his reasoning and his style, and of measuring the progress which he makes under the training to which his mind is subjected. In a word, the manifold advantages of this system, both to teachers and pupils, can only be appreciated by those who have had the experience of their happy effects; and that this practical method of philosophical instruction, is not more generally adopted in our academical institutions, is only to be accounted for, by the very familiar fact, that public functionaries are, for the most part, more inclined to rest satisfied with merely following out the line of duty which custom has prescribed, than to inquire very anxiously how their offices might be rendered more efficient for promoting the interests of the community.

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I am not inclined to flatter myself with the expectation that any material change, in the system now alluded to, will be adopted, in consequence of any recommendation which is contained in these pages. But every person deeply interested in the success of education is entitled to expect, that whatever is candidly proposed, as an improvement in the plan of conducting it, should receive, at least, an impartial consideration. Nor is there any thing, I should hope, in the constitution of colleges in the south, positively to preclude all changes whatsoever, in the mode of applying the industry

and genius of their students; for a statute to this effect would be tantamount to a determination, not to admit any of the improvements which the progress of science may bring to light, how essential soever to the furtherance of the object for which they were originally founded. Every change which is calculated to improve philosophical education must be in perfect accordance with the spirit and intent even of the most ancient of such establishments; and it is always to be presumed, that, if the founders had possessed the knowledge and experience which has elsewhere led to any particular innovation, they would have been the first to adopt it. For instance, the statutes left in force, at the last visitation of the university of Glasgow, required that the professor of the first class of philosophy should teach Aristotle's logic, and those parts of his metaphysics which treat of ontology and the human mind. But the present professor does not think that, by any change of subject which he has introduced, he has deviated in the smallest degree from the spirit of these statutes; and his immediate superiors, accordingly, have sanctioned the modifications which he has thought it expedient to make, both in the subject-matter of his lectures, or in the details of teaching. This is nothing more than that accommodation to circumstances which the imperfect nature of all human institutions is found to demand. Laws become obsolete from the change of manners and opinions; and, although permitted to remain on the statute-book, have no more force than if they had never been in existence. So should all enactments which restrict education fall into desuetude, whenever they are found to oppose the advancement of sound views and of useful knowledge. And were the plan of teaching philosophy, which is here recommended, to be adopted in our universities, the reproach which is so often thrown out against them, of not teaching any thing connected with the business of active life would, in a great measure, be removed.

But I fear not so much the opposition which arises from statutes and the caprice of founders, as that generated by prejudices which spring up in learned societies, and are, in some degree, fostered by the habits and modes of life which there prevail. The magnificence and splendor of ancient establishments, with the power and privileges with which they are endowed, have contributed to separate them, in some very important respects, from almost every other learned society, and to create a feeling of superiority, which does not easily brook any change in their habits and institutions. It is to this constitutional pride and importance that I allude, when I anticipate opposition from the habits of thinking which prevail among some of those classes of men to whom these observations are addressed; for nothing is likely to be so ill received by them as an allusion to supposed defects and imperfections, except, per

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haps, a comparison of their system with that of similar establish

ments.

It is not my object here to moralise on human weakness, nor to remonstrate with human folly; but, certainly, neither great age nor great wealth ought to be made the ground on which to raise a claim of superior excellence for a public seminary of education. Antiquity, be it remembered, is the infancy of society; and riches, in this case, as in all others, reflect honor on their possessor, only in proportion to the wisdom with which they are employed. Besides, the revenue of a college ought to be viewed in the light of wages, and not in that of an unconditional donation. It originally sprang from the piety or liberality of individuals who wished to promote the education of youth; on which account, it becomes the bounden duty of the members of colleges, to provide, with the utmost assiduity, that the means afforded for the instruction of the young persons committed to their care, shall not only be such as they have hitherto been, but the best that the improved state of information, in modern times, can possibly supply. It continues, however, to be a reproach on some learned societies, that a prejudice in favor of certain modes of teaching is apt to become so powerful, as to withstand every effort to improve them; and that, while every other order of professional men are disposed not only to borrow but to steal improvements from one another, teachers in universities avoid all communication and intercourse, think it beneath them to take a hint which might prove useful, or to profit by the experience of those who may have ventured out of the common track. Such conduct is neither wise nor liberal. Engaged in the same dignified and important work, upon which the great interests of society so much depend, it ought to be the duty of every public teacher to exert himself to the utmost, whether by adopting new methods, or by improving upon the old, to raise higher and higher the intellectual and moral character of the human being.

But I forbear insisting upon matters so obvious and commonplace. No man doubts that it is incumbent on him to do his duty in the best way that it can be performed. The only difference of opinion is respecting the means; and, to come to a right judgement on this head, nothing more seems necessary than candid inquiry and a fair comparison. In this, as in all other questions as to right and wrong, better and worse, the force of truth must ultimately prevail.

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE FREE SCHOOLS OF MASSACHUSETTS.

(Continued.)

[From Letters on the Free Schools of New England, by James G. Carter.]

THE Province Charter from William and Mary, in 1691, ordained that the 'territories and colonies commonly called or known by the names of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the Colony of New Plymouth, the province of Main, the territory called Accada, or Nova Scotia; and all that tract of land lying between the said territories of Nova Scotia, and the said province of Main, be erected, united, and incorporated, into one real province, by the name of our Province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England.' In this charter,* all grants before made to any town, college, or school of learning, were confirmed. The laws which had been passed under the colony charter of Massachusetts, for the regulation and support of free schools, were essentially confirmed, the first year after the province charter was received, by the following act of the governor, council, and representatives, convened in general court or assembly.'

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And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that every town within this province, having the number of fifty householders or upwards, shall be constantly provided of a schoolmaster to teach children and youth to read and write; and where any town or towns have the number of one hundred families or householders, there shall also be a grammar school set up in every such town, and some discreet person of good conversation, well instructed in the tongues, procured to keep such school, every such schoolmaster to be suitably encouraged and paid by the inhabitants. And the selectmen and inhabitants of such towns respectively, shall take effectual care and make due provision for the settlement and maintenance of such schoolmaster and masters.'

These together with the subsequent provisions, that grammar schoolmasters should be approved by the selectmen of the town, and the minister of the same, or of a neighboring town, constituted

'Provided, nevertheless, and we do for us, our heirs and successors, grant and ordain, that all and every such lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all other estates, which any person or persons, or bodies politic or corporate, towns, villages, colleges, or schools, do hold and enjoy, or ought to hold and enjoy, within the bounds aforesaid, by or under any grant or estate duly made or granted by any general court formerly held, or by virtue of the letters patent herein before recited, or by any other lawful right or title whatsoever, shall be by such person and persons, bodies politic and corporate, towns, villages, colleges, or schools their respective heirs, successors, and assigns forever, hereafter held and enjoyed, according to the purport and intent of such respective grant, under and subject nevertheless, to the rents and services thereby reserved or made payable, any matter of thing whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding.' [Province Charter.]

+ Prov. Laws, Chap. 13, sec. 4.

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